When you become ill, your first instinct is to contact a health care professional for treatment.
As Americans we put a lot of faith and trust in our health care providers. Unfortunately, there are times when a patient seeks the attention of a doctor or health care provider, only to leave in a worse condition.
Medical malpractice can cause serious injuries, and may even cause a patient to die. Sadly, medical malpractice is much more common than you would think. Reading over statistics regarding medical malpractice can be quite alarming. After learning of these statistics, you may be thinking differently about your doctor visits.
Some of the statistics relating to medical malpractice are:
- Death. In the most extreme instances, death becomes the result of medical malpractice. Medical malpractice kills close to 200,000 people every year in the United States. Nearly 12,000 of these deaths occur when people receive unnecessary surgery.
- Injuries. A large number of Americans are injured every year due to medical malpractice. Every day there are approximately 40,000 injuries caused by medical malpractice. There are another 1.5 million people who suffer injury due to medication errors.
- Legal action. There is much fewer medical malpractice claims then there are incidents. Only two percent of all people who are injured in a medical error will seek compensation. Half of all malpractice claims are filed against surgeons.
It is important to hold those responsible accountable for their actions. To discuss your legal options you need to get in contact with an experienced Virginia malpractice attorney by filling out the contact form on this page.